Lack of staff and low appreciation 1000 Kita workers on strike in Bonn
Bonn · 1000 workers from day-care centres and OGS followed the strike call of Verdi on Wednesday. At the rally on the market square, they demanded more money and more staff. Komba is planning another strike for 12 May.
In front of the DGB building on Endenicher Straße in Bonn, more than 1000 workers from the social services and education sectors gathered for a warning strike on Wednesday morning and marched to a rally on the market square. In the collective bargaining dispute between employers and the union, the Verdi union is demanding "an improvement in working conditions, measures against a shortage of skilled workers and financial recognition of the work of those workers in the social and educational services“.
Nationwide, Verdi had called for a strike for this. "We want to mobilise properly before the next round of negotiations and hope that a negotiable offer will be presented then," announced union secretary Ellen Steinhäuser in an interview with the General-Anzeiger. Verdi is planning further strikes for next week. The union is demanding more visibility and a fair offer from Mayor Karin Welge of Gelsenkirchen as chair of the Association of Municipal Employers' Associations (VKA). The third round of negotiations between the union and employers is scheduled for 16 and 17 May.
Concrete information on how many children and parents were affected by the strike was not available on Wednesday. Steinhäuser reported that part-time workers had offered emergency care in some places. Most day-care centres, however, remained closed, the union secretary said.
Without changes in the collective agreement, Steinhäuser sees a dark future for the sector: "We will lose many colleagues who retire in the next few years. Unfortunately, there is a high turnover. People start with heart and soul and then can't stand the stress." The profession must therefore be made more attractive in the future, also through better pay.
There was great indignation among the strikers in Bonn on Wednesday. An employee of a day-care centre in Bonn formulated her demands clearly: "More money, more staff, smaller groups. As an educator, she feels that she is not valued enough: "The adults are forgotten," she summarised.
Staff at an open all-day school (OGS) in Hürth also know this feeling. Their job is now much more organisational than pedagogical. In order to relieve the workload of the specialists in the OGS, it is necessary to have even more supplementary staff. Other strikers share this feeling. "We're going down the drain and can't take any more" and "It's five to twelve - more is needed" can be read on posters brought by the participants.
Komba announces further strike for 12 May
Not only the trade union Verdi demands improved working conditions in collective bargaining. The local branch of the komba union represents the interests of public service workers in the Bonn area. This also includes workers in municipal day-care centres in Bonn. For Thursday, 12 May, Komba is also planning to strike the day-care centres, reported Christoph Busch, chair of the Komba local association in Bonn.
Original text: Franziska Klaes
Translation: Mareike Graepel
